Contents

Plot

Summary

In the Seven Kingdoms

Bronn singing with the Lannister soldiers

Bronn fires the arrow that triggers the wildfire explosion.

Tyrion Lannister leads the defense of King's Landing against an assault by King Stannis Baratheon in the Battle of the Blackwater. He spends the night before the expected siege in bed with Shae, telling her she can still leave the city. Tyrion has Varys provide him with a map of the tunnel network beneath the city. Varys tells Tyrion that he is all that stands between them and defeat. Bronn drinks with the Lannister men and has a confrontation with the Hound. Stannis plans a naval assault aiming to overcome the city's small defensive fleet and land his troops at the walls of the city near the Mud Gate. From the battlements, Joffrey berates Tyrion as to why his ships aren't meeting Stannis. Tyrion has anticipated his strategy and does not field his fleet. Instead he sends a single ship filled with Wildfire into the heart of Stannis' fleet, leaking the volatile substance over the surface of the water. He tasks Bronn with detonating the ship; he goes outside the city to the shores of the bay to fire the burning arrow that triggers the explosion. The ensuing conflagration devastates Stannis' fleet and destroys the ship of his High Captain, Davos Seaworth, as well as killing Davos' son, Matthos.

Sandor breaks down.

Stannis responds by putting his men ashore inside row boats, landing further from the walls to avoid the still burning inner bay. With less protection for his troops he predicts that thousands will die. He leads the assault personally and is the first to reach the walls. Tyrion orders Sandor Clegane to lead a sortie beyond the Mud Gate to repel the attackers. Sandor does as asked but is terrified by the fire and breaks down emotionally. Ser Lancel Lannister accompanies him and is wounded by an arrow. Bronn joins the fight in time to save the Hound's life. The Hound retreats after losing half of his men and refuses to go out again. He demands wine, tells off Tyrion and Joffrey, and walks away from the battle and his place in the Kingsguard.

Queen Regent Cersei Lannister offers protection to the ladies of the court in Maegor's Holdfast. She had earlier obtained Essence of Nightshade (which is deadly unless taken in tiny amounts) from Grand Maester Pycelle and keeps the headsman Ser Ilyn Payne at her side at all times, preparing for the worst. She drinks heavily during the assault and torments her captive Sansa Stark with dire predictions of what will befall the women if the defenses fail. She questions Shae, who seems to Cersei to be an unlikely handmaiden. When Lancel comes to tell her that Stannis has reached the walls Cersei orders him to bring Joffrey back to the Red Keep, ignoring his protests that it would damage morale.

Tyrion rallies the troops

Joffrey willingly leaves the defensive line with Lancel and charges Ser Mandon Moore and Ser Boros Blount of the Kingsguard to fight in the King's name. The gold cloaks' morale is broken by his departure. Tyrion steels himself to lead a sortie of his own. He rallies his men by telling them to fight for their city, their homes and their women, if not for their king. He leads his men through the tunnels beneath the city and is able to defeat Stannis's troops manning a battering ram at the Mud Gate. Tyrion is betrayed by Ser Mandon while fighting against a group of reinforcements. Mandon slashes Tyrion across the face with his sword. Tyrion's squire Podrick Payne comes up behind Ser Mandon with a spear and is able to intervene and kill Mandon saving Tyrion's life. Tyrion, barely conscious and held by Podrick watches a that battle seems lost.

Lancel wounded by arrow to shoulder

Cersei and Tommen on the Iron Throne as the battle rages.

Lancel returns to Cersei to warn that they are defeated unless Joffrey returns. When Lancel tries to be firm with her, Cersei ignores his counsel, pushes him out of the way (deliberately causing him pain by hitting his injured side), and storms out. Sansa tries to keep up the morale of the other women, frightened by Cersei's sudden departure. Sansa leads them in singing a hymn. Cersei has taken Tommen to the throne room. She sits with him on the Iron Throne, and tells him a story about a young lion and how it did not need to fear other beasts of the forest, the wolf and the stag. Shae tells Sansa to go to her chambers, lock herself in, and await Stannis, as he would not harm her, but Ser Ilyn might. Sansa finds the Hound waiting in her room. He offers to take her north to Winterfell, but she says she will be safe there when Stannis takes the throne. The Hound scares Sansa telling her his perspective of the world, that it is made up of violent men, even her father, Robb, etc., unlike the songs she believes in the world is run by trained killers like him, but he will not hurt her. Though he promises to protect her, she is still too afraid of him to go with him. Cersei sits on the Iron Throne and prepares to poison Tommen in order to prevent him from being taken captive.

Tywin and Loras lead their victorious forces into the throne room.

The forces of Tywin Lannister and his new allies in House Tyrell join the battle. Their cavalry charge is led by a warrior dressed in the armor of Renly Baratheon and decimates Stannis's army. The survivors flee to their ships. Stannis is dragged from the battle by his guards, screaming for his men to stand and fight. Tyrion collapses into unconsciousness as the battle turns in his favor. Tywin goes to the throne room to announce the victory, stopping Cersei from killing Tommen in time. Ser Loras Tyrell reveals himself as the knight wearing Renly's armor.

This is the second episode of the series written by George R.R. Martin, the writer of the novels, following on from "The Pointy End" in the first season. It was also the first episode of the second season to be named, with Martin revealing the name "Blackwater" in a blog post on June 1, 2011, a year before broadcasting.[2]

George R.R. Martin especially announced on his blog that director Neil Marshall would be helming this episode, noting that he was a fan of Marshall's feature film work, particularly the 2005 horror film The Descent.[3]

It was reported that co-producer Vince Gerardis had said that the titular and iconic Battle of the Blackwater will take up 16 minutes of the finished episode. However, this was later corrected to a general statement that it takes up a notable portion of the episode and is impressive, but likely not as impressive as some fans would like it to be.[4]

Producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were disappointed at not being able to film the large-scale Battle of the Green Fork in Season 1, so always planned to shoot the Battle of the Blackwater. At one stage budgetary restrictions made it look like it would not be possible and the battle would have to take place off-screen, but the producers were able to convince HBO to provide a larger budget for the episode.[5]

Despite the larger budget and a creative decision to move the battle to the night, there was still not enough time or money to film the battle as depicted in the books. George R.R. Martin was aware of this and pared the battle down significantly in his script. However, it still retained several elements that the producers then had to remove to make the budget work.[5]

The original director for the episode pulled out at short notice. Neil Marshall was a last-minute replacement, although the producers were familiar with his feature work. Marshall ended up adding more elements and sequences to the battle than the producers had envisioned after the script rewrites.[5] Marshall has not read the books, but marathoned Season 1 for two weeks prior to the beginning of the month-long filming of the episode. According to Marshall, none of the specific instances of gore during the battle scenes were specifically written into the script (The Hound cutting a man in half, Stannis cutting the top of a man's head off), but were improvisations he was left to develop on his own.[6]

This episode has the largest budget and largest number of visual effects of any episode of Game of Thrones to date.[5]

Jerome Flynn, who plays Bronn, sings "The Rains of Castamere" in this episode, he was one half of the singing duo Robson and Jerome.

George R.R. Martin's original script featured both the chain and also large numbers of horses in the battle. The former was removed for budgetary reasons, the latter for pacing[7].

Actually, Martin specifies in the Blu-ray commentary for this episode that the chain was never included even in the earliest drafts he wrote of this episode. Producers Benioff & Weiss told him right from the start that given all of the other expenses of the Battle of the Blackwater scenes (which had already broken their budget), they knew going in that the chain sequence was simply beyond their available price limit. Martin did include in the earliest draft a sequence from the books featuring three great trebuchets in the city known as the Three Whores, which Joffrey uses to launch Stannis-loyalists known as the Antler Men over the walls at the approaching army (they're called the "Antler Men" because in mockery Joffrey ordered his soldiers to physically nail deer antlers onto the men's heads, then shoot them over the walls as they're bleeding but still alive). Ultimately, the Three Whores and the Antler Men also had to be cut for budgetary reasons.

Martin also said in the Blu-ray commentary that Benioff and Weiss rewrote the dialogue in the final scene with Cersei and Tommen sitting on the Iron Throne, and he likes their revised version much more than what he had originally written.

Initially HBO asks the producers if they needed an extra $500,000 to film the battle. Benioff and Weiss ended up asking for $2,500,000, and got slightly more than $2,000,0000. The conference call to discuss this was described as "intense"[8].

The original director left due to his father being ill. Benioff and Weiss drafted in Neil Marshall at short notice: they asked him on a Saturday morning to start prep on the Monday. Marshall agreed, watching the entire first season back-to-back on the Sunday before getting on a plane. Benioff thought of Marshall due to his wife's fear of Marshall's movie, The Descent[9].

Marshall had a week and a half of prep before the start of shooting. Marshall was puzzled by the script, in which Stannis disappears once the fighting at the wall starts. The entire sequence of Stannis climbing the wall, fighting off the defenders and watching his army's defeat before being dragged from the field was added by Marshall[10].

According to Martin's Blu-ray commentary, he didn't write the scene at the tavern before the battle between Bronn and Sandor Clegane. He enjoys this scene, but it was written by Benioff and Weiss.

The scene where Cersei prepares to poison Tommen was inspired by Magda Goebbels poisoning her own children before committing suicide during the fall of Berlin in World War II[11].

Martin in the Blu-ray commentary for this episode, as well as Benioff and Weiss in their Blu-ray commentary two episodes ago in "A Man Without Honor", both state that despite all of Sansa Stark's scenes in Season 2 involving severe beatings, rapes, and threats of violence, easily the scene actress Sophie Turner was most frightened of filming was the brief moment when she has to sing in front of everyone in this episode. All agreed that Turner actually has a good singing voice, and she really only sings three lines from the hymn Gentle Mother, Font of Mercy, but she was still quite terrified. Benioff and Weiss speculate that this is because while an attempted rape scene might seem scary to viewers, the actors rehearse the scene in so many alternate takes that they are no longer surprised by what is happening. In contrast, no matter how many takes are filmed, there is always the danger that you might perform badly while singing.

Benioff claims that there will be a battle sequence at the end of the proposed fourth season that will dwarf the Battle of the Blackwater. He envisages more complex negotiations to secure the budget for it[12].

In the books

The episode covers material from A Clash of Kings, book 2 of A Song of Ice and Fire. The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Clash of Kings:

Chapter 58, Sansa V: Sansa talks with Tyrion; Joffrey then forces Sansa to kiss his sword immediately before the battle. She takes refuge with the women of the court in Maegor's Holdfast. Sansa and Cersei talks about why Ser Ilyn is present.

Chapter 60, Tyrion XIII: Tyrion sees the destructive power of his Wildfire. The Hound flees the battle. Tyrion decides to lead a counterattack.

Chapter 61, Sansa VI: Sansa and Cersei are talking when Ser Mandon Moore announces the capture of some traitors. Cersei commands Lancel to fetch Joffrey back to his chambers. She reveals that she lied about Ser Ilyn and says that he is there to ensure that Stannis will not take them alive.

Chapter 62, Tyrion XIV: Tyrion is attacked by Ser Mandon Moore in the midst of the battle. He is rescued by Podrick and passes out in the squire's arms. Stannis scales the castle walls.

Chapter 63, Sansa VIII: Lancel tells Cersei that their troops are routing. She ignores his pleas to return Joffrey to the front and storms out of Maegor's Holdfast. Her guests panic and Sansa is left to calm them down. Sansa returns to her chamber where she is found by the Hound. He tells her that he is leaving.

The battle takes place by day; Stannis's fleet lasts much longer and is destroyed by the combination a chain that is raised at the river entrance and the Wildfire. Bronn plays a crucial role in the battle by raising the chain across the mouth of the river, to prevent Stannis' ships from fleeing the Wildfire. The TV version condensed this down for time and budget, so that Bronn still plays a vital role in destroying Stannis' fleet: he fires the flaming arrow which sets off the explosion of the ship filled with Wildfire.

In the TV series, Stannis' entire attack is launched from the sea. In the books, Stannis' 200 ships are filled with as many men as they can hold, but the larger part of his 20,000 man army has marched up the coast from the Stormlands to the southern side of Blackwater Bay, across from King's Landing which is on the northern side. The intent was for Stannis' fleet to land an initial invasion force to secure a landing zone on the northern shore, then for the fleet to ferry soldiers from the main army back and forth from the south shore to the north shore. Only eight of Stannis' ships survive the Wildfire to land troops. Thankfully for Stannis, Imry Florent didn't think much of Salladhor Saan due to his status as a pirate, so he left his sellsail fleet of thirty ships in reserve to guard the rear entrance of Blackwater Bay. As a result, Salladhor's fleet is not trapped behind the chain with the Wildfire, and plays a vital role ferrying troops to the northern shore after the main fleet's destruction.

The Hound does not offer to escort Sansa North.

It is Garlan Tyrell, not Loras Tyrell, who wears Renly's armor and breaks the siege. Garlan is Loras' older brother, Mace Tyrell's second son, but he hasn't been introduced in the TV series, so they just condensed these actions into Loras' role. Wearing Renly's armor convinced many of Stannis' soldiers, who had once served Renly, that it was the "ghost of Renly" riding out for revenge, at which they panicked or threw down their weapons and surrendered.

In the TV series, when people in the city are discovered trying to steal horses to flee, Cersei orders Ser Ilyn Payne to behead them. In the books, several wealthy merchants of King's Landing attempt to hand over the city to Stannis by opening the gates. When they are discovered, Joffrey has antlers physically nailed into their heads - for the stag of Stannis' House Baratheon - after which the bloody men are loaded into the catapults and launched over the walls at Stannis' army. They are later referred to as the "Antler Men".

Cersei notes that Shae is from the Free City of Lorath, as she recognizes her accent from a Lorathi handmaiden she used to have. In the books, Shae isn't actually from the Free Cities at all, she's just a camp follower of the Lannister army and her backstory is never gone into in detail, but she is from Westeros. The TV producers stated that they changed it so that when she is introduced in Season 1, Shae is stated to be "from the Free Cities" (they hadn't settled on which one yet) because they enjoyed the audition of actress Sibel Kekilli, but wanted to have some explanation for why she speaks with a German accent. What's curious about this is that five novels into the series, no named characters, save from Jaqen H'ghar, whose origins are unknown, come from Lorath and very little is said about it, due to its relative lack of importance. Identifying Shae as Lorathi, however, also serves to explain Jaqen's similar accent.